Monday, April 22, 2013

Teddy Casiño: Leftist but not communist?

According to senatorial candidate Teodoro “Teddy” Casiño (Bayan Muna) it is, swearing that "he’s neither a member of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) nor a lapdog of Jose Maria Sison."

Casiño said he had publicly denounced the NPA’s alleged atrocities in the past, particularly the bloody purge in the communist movement in the late 1980s.

“Is there a communist with a teddy bear?” Casiño quipped. “What we do is simply explain that being ‘left’ doesn’t necessarily mean you espouse the armed struggle. You can be ‘left’ and work within the parliamentary constitutional arena.”

But a group called the People’s Advocacy for Collaboration and Empowerment (PEACE) who have filed a complaint with the COMELEC denouncing various party lists as including Bayan Muna as mere fronts of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). PEACE advocates allege that left-leaning members of Congress have been diverting their pork barrel earnings to the funding of the terrorist New People's Army, the armed hand of the Philippines' Communist Party.

Back in 2002, no less than Jose Maria Sison, leader of the CPP and probable commander-in-chief of the NPA issued a press statement describing how the NPA plays a key role in the overall terrorism landscape of the Philippines…

The revolutionary forces of the Bangsamoro, like the MILF and the progressive section of the MNLF can consolidate their armies and choose the time for launching their own offensives, while the military, police and paramilitary forces of the Manila government are preoccupied with their campaigns of suppression against the revolutionary people and forces in most parts of the archipelago. In the future rounds of revolutionary armed struggle by the Moro people, the reactionary armed forces will fare worse than their continuing failure to destroy a small bandit gang called Abu Sayyaf in the tiny island of Basilan.

The PEACE complaint reportedly cited close affiliates of Bayan Muna as being part of a coalition of several organisations that serve as legal “fronts” to Sison’s communist party…

[...] no less than Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison identified legal democratic forces that help their cause including the Bagong Alyansyang Makabayan (Bayan), Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), the Pambansang Kilusang Magbubukid or the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), Gabriela, League of Filipino Students (LFS), Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) and KADENA.

The Communist Party of the Philippines is a leading communist party in the Philippines. It remains an underground political organization since its founding on December 26, 1968 and has been operating in clandestine manner since its founding. It aims to overthrow the Philippine government through armed revolution with its direct leadership over the New People’s Army and National Democratic Front.